Exploring Poetry

This week, students have been working on their own poems. They have written about photographs, their experiences, and the tadpoles we have in our classroom.

Writing poetry offers some challenges. How can we write new and interesting ideas, ideas that will make the reader think about the topic in a new way? How can we write our ideas in a way that looks like a poem? And how can we include figurative language, like similes and personification, or sound devices, like alliteration?

I'm thrilled to say that kids have responded to the challenge. Our wall is blossoming with poems! If you get a chance to stop by, come and see all of the amazing poems.

If you want to do some more work with poetry, try these sites:

Poetry interactive: This site, from ReadWriteThink.org, is a fun way to explore how changing the lines in a poem can change the experience of reading it.

Poetry idea engine: This is an interactive that lets you explore different kinds of poetry, like haiku, cinquain, and limericks.

Diamantes: Students loved this tool early in the year! Here, students can write diamante poems.

How do we use water?

As we look at bodies of water, it's important for us to think about how people use water resources. Today we talked about how many gallons of water we use each day. One gallon? Two gallons? Kids were surprised to learn that the average American uses 80-100 gallons of water each day!

Here is a game that you can play to see how much water is used by everyday activities.

If you like Pac-Man, you might enjoy this game from the EPA. Take the water droplet Flow through a maze and answer questions about water use.

Here is the Powerpoint that we used to talk about water resources in Pennsylvania. Do you remember what the word agriculture means? What about tourism?

Water resources

View more presentations from Emily Kissner

Seed Experiment Update

Our seeds have sprouted! We're already beginning to see some big differences between the different cups. As one student said, "The salt water must be killing the plants!" Every group has had Plant A--the seed watered with tap water--sprout and grow. But the seeds watered with slightly salty and very salty water are not growing.

Another student brought up a good point: What about other kinds of seeds? This is a great question to investigate! Radish seeds seem to have a problem with saltwater. But are there seeds that can grow in saltwater? How could you find out?

Understanding Lentic and Lotic Ecosystems

As we study bodies of water, we've been looking at the difference between lentic habitats (still water) and lotic habitats (flowing water). We watched some videos of different streams to observe how the water flows. We also tried out this fun interactive, created by a teacher in northern PA:

Lentic/Lotic Interactive


Students sorted cards into piles according to whether the ecosystem was lentic or lotic.

Have you visited any of these water habitats? What have you noticed?

Learning About Water Habitats

In science, we're starting a study of water habitats. Students will be learning about different freshwater and salt water habitats. Here are some fun links to find out more about water habitats.

Coral Reefs
From NOAA, this site has pictures of different coral reefs and the plants and animals that live there.

Vernal Pools
Maybe you have a vernal pool in your own backyard! This special habitat is a puddle that is wet through the spring, but dries up in the summer. Many different kinds of animals, like wood frogs and mole salamanders, lay their eggs here.

Chesapeake Bay
Learn about the organisms that live in the Chesapeake Bay.

Rivers and Streams
Learn about rivers and streams at this site. (Links to other habitats are at the top--have fun exploring!)

Tide Pools
Create a tide pool with this interactive tool.

Keep checking for more fun links. And keep learning new information about our water habitats!

How does saltwater affect seeds?

Early in the school year, fourth graders did an experiment to see which kind of potting soil helped to grow the biggest plants. (We found that the seed starter is the best!)

Now, as we get ready to study different kinds of water habitats, we're examining the effects of salt water. Will saltwater help plants to grow, or harm them? To test this, we're planting seeds in the same kind of soil and watering some with tap water, some with slightly salty water, and some with very salty water.

Before we planted our seeds, students used their prior knowledge to make a hypothesis. Many of them had an idea about what the very salty water would do. But what about the slightly salty water? See what your child thinks!

Once we formed our hypotheses, we planted the seeds. We used radish seeds because they grow quickly and are easy to handle. Watering the seeds gave students another chance to practice using the graduate cylinders!

What will happen? We'll find out! Talk with your child about the experiment. What is your child's hypothesis?

If you used salt on your driveway this winter, how might this affect plants? What about plants that grow along the beach--does the saltwater have an effect on them? Why or why not?

If you are interested in learning about some mystery seeds, visit this fun science blog. Look for updates on our radish seeds!

The Start of Spring

With the sun finally shining, it seems as if we are finally on our way to spring. In science, students learned all about what causes the seasons. Can your child explain it? How is the season changing in Australia right now?

Here is a fun blog, written by a science writer, that gives tips for how to explore nature in any season:

Archimedes Notebook

Another sign of spring is the spring peeper. These tiny frogs make an enormous racket in the spring. Can you hear the peepers where you live? What can you observe about them?

Learning About the Moon

Why does the moon look different on different nights? We worked on many different activities to learn about why the moon changes in appearance.

This was one of our stations. Here, students are shining a flashlight on a basketball, and then looking at it from different angles. They observed how the light changed the basketball's appearance.

Students also used sandwich cookies to find out more about the moon. It was a delicious activity! They took apart the cookies and matched up the parts to the phases of the moon.

You can learn more about the Oreo activity at this website.

You can also find an animation of the phases of the moon.

Try looking outside over the next few nights. What do you notice? What does the moon look like? How does it change?

Comparing and Contrasting

In class, we have been comparing and contrasting. When we compare, we look at how things are similar and different. Fourth graders have to be able to explain how items are similar and different.



We started out by comparing two kinds of candy. Our first step was to generate criteria--what would we look at to compare? Working together, students came up with ideas like size, color, wrappers, and taste.

Our next step was to explore. Students unwrapped the candy and looked at it closely. By taking the time to look carefully, they found new details that they didn't expect to find! (For example, one of the candies is different in the center.)


Finally, students recorded their ideas on their charts. They used their charts to write paragraphs about the similarities and differences. They tried to use compare and contrast clue words--however, like, on the other hand, also, too, both, similarity, difference--to help make their ideas clear.

Learning about comparing and contrasting is important work. As students move into the upper grades, they need to be able to quickly find similarities and differences.

At home, you can try:
-Look at how two items are similar and different. Try examining two different kinds of fruit from the grocery store. What criteria could you use to compare?
-Practice comparing and contrasting different television shows. What criteria would you use? How are they similar? How are they different?
-Try comparing and contrasting two different kinds of candy. What do you notice?
-Listen for the comparing and contrasting clue words. How are they used? When do people use the phrase "on the other hand"?